Responding to one of Anderson Cooper’s softball questions,
socialist Bernie
Sanders (I-VT) told the CNN Town Hall on Wednesday night that he lives
a frugal life and indicated that he doesn’t care about money or
status. “I have a small Chevrolet,” he said. “It is
one of the smallest Chevys that they make.” He said it was about
five years old.

But James O’Brien, a political consultant and former publisher
of Campaigns & Elections magazine, says the career politician,
who has been a mayor, member of Congress and U.S. senator, has achieved
the financial status of a millionaire.

O’Brien has analyzed
the financial status of Sanders and his wife, including their financial
disclosure report, and has concluded they have a net worth in the range
of $1.2 to $1.5 million, not the $700,000 or less that is usually reported
by the media.

Rather than “Feel the Bern,” the phrase associated with popular
support for the self-declared “democratic socialist,” O’Brien
says that Sanders is personally “Feelin’ the Wealth.”

Equally significant, his wife, Jane O’Meara Sanders, left her position
as president of Burlington College under controversial circumstances and
is now being accused of federal bank fraud. She left her position at the
college and was given a severance package known as a “golden parachute”
that also benefited Senator Sanders’ personal wealth.

Brady C. Toensing, a partner with the law firm of diGenova & Toensing,
has filed a legal
complaint with federal authorities requesting an investigation into
apparent federal bank fraud committed by Ms. Sanders. His complaint was
sent to Eric S. Miller, the U.S. Attorney for the District of Vermont,
and Fred W. Gibson, Jr., Acting Inspector General with the Federal Deposit
Insurance Corporation.

A Sanders spokesman
told the Burlington Free Press that the complaint was an
effort to throw mud at the presidential candidate.

O’Brien says that Sanders’ financial disclosure forms are
incomplete. “For someone who doesn’t care about money, he
goes a long way to cover up his true net worth,” he says. “Bernie
does not disclose the value of real estate holdings. He can. He is not
required to, but he could if he chose. It is known that he and/or his
wife own at least two homes—one with rental income in Vermont and
one near Capitol Hill where the median home value is $722,000.”

O’Brien bases his conclusions about Sanders’ millionaire
status on what is known and can be estimated about his salary, the income
of his wife, joint income, investments, pension, and value of his real
estate properties.

On top of this, O’Brien notes that Sanders benefits from a multi-million
dollar U.S. Senate staff and a multi-million dollar U.S. presidential
campaign staff.

In addition to the questions about his real net worth, Jane Sanders’
exit from Burlington College continues to generate controversy, even scandal.
She was president of the college from 2004 until 2011.

Federal officials have acknowledged the complaint about Jane Sanders
from attorney Brady
C. Toensing, but they won’t say whether they are going forward
with an investigation.

Although Senator Sanders frequently complains about the “corporate
media” that are supposed to have a bias against his candidacy, the
necessary task of digging into the finances of his wife has been left
to the conservative media and some local Vermont news organizations.

At the very least—as
noted by Bruce Parker, a Vermont reporter for Watchdog.org—Senator
Sanders should be asked to explain how his opposition to severance packages
for corporation executives squares with his wife getting a cushy severance
of $200,000.

In a story headlined, “Bernie
Sanders’ Wife May Have Defrauded State Agency, Bank,”
reporters Blake Neff and Peter Fricke of the conservative Daily Caller
News Foundation reported the essential facts of the case, noting that
she nearly bankrupted Burlington College when she took on $10 million
in debt to finance the purchase of a new, far more expansive campus. “The
move backfired massively, leading to Sanders’ departure from the
college and the near-collapse of the institution,” Neff and Fricke
report.

By any standard of fair and objective news reporting, a candidate who
promises “free college” to America’s young people should
be asked to address the issue of his wife’s financial shenanigans
almost bankrupting an institution of higher learning. But it hasn’t
been raised in the debates.

At one point it was reported that Burlington College was fighting for
its very survival. “As a result of its financial woes, Burlington
College is on academic probation from the New England Association of Schools
and Colleges,” reported
VTDigger.org, a statewide news website, in 2014.

VT Digger confirmed the nefarious role played by Jane Sanders, noting
that she “overstated donation amounts in a bank application for
a $6.7 million loan that was used by the college to purchase a prime 33-acre
property on Lake Champlain in 2010.” Jane Sanders “resigned
under pressure from the Burlington College board of trustees nearly a
year after obtaining the multi-million dollar loan,” the site reported.
“After both sides lawyered up, the board gave Sanders the title
of president emeritus and a $200,000 severance package.”

A Republican activist named Skip Vallee produced a 60-second television
advertisement entitled, “Bernie’s
Golden Parachute,” describing the nature of the $200,000 severance
package and making the point that while Sanders was planning a presidential
run “on a theme of railing against golden parachutes and excesses”
on Wall Street, he took “his own golden parachute” through
his wife’s curious dealings with the cash-strapped college.

Subscribe to NewsWithViews Daily Email Alerts

Email Address *

First Name

*required
field

The ad features the “S” in Sanders in the shape of a dollar
sign and shows Sanders saying the rich in America “manipulate a
rigged system” and benefit from “golden parachutes.”

On top of this scandal, The Washington Free Beacon has
reported that Senator Sanders used campaign money to benefit members
of his family, and that Jane Sanders directed six-figure sums from Burlington
College to her daughter and the son of a family friend.

“Getting money out of politics” is one of the planks in Sanders’
presidential campaign platform.

But
James O’Brien, a political consultant and former publisher of Campaigns
& Elections magazine, says the career politician, who has been
a mayor, member of Congress and U.S. senator, has achieved the financial
status of a millionaire.